The keys that San Francisco mail carriers use to access residential mailboxes and deliver items to about half of San Francisco’s addresses are fundamentally insecure, according to post office officials.
A single universal key unlocks several kinds of locks on a mail route, including clusters of mailboxes, streetside collection boxes, and even lockboxes to enter residences’ mailbox areas. Yet despite describing them as the prime motivation for mail carrier robberies, the United States Postal Service has no plans to phase them out.
In about half of San Francisco residences, keys to the area of a building where mailboxes are located are kept in a small lockbox outside of the residence. If one key is stolen, a thief can access lockboxes at many buildings.
But building owners can choose to switch to a keyless lock for access to their mail area, a change endorsed by inspectors who investigate mail theft, though those locks are not advertised nor pushed by the United States Postal Service.
Mail theft is often the motivation for stealing keys, and the keys used to access mailboxes inside buildings or vestibules may also grant access to other areas of buildings.
On March 21 at 6 a.m., for example, police responded to a call on the 100 block of Albion Street, where an intruder had gained access to a garage using the same key the mail carrier uses to access the mailboxes. He could be seen trying the back doors of each condominium, but he also had full access to the garage. The intruder was arrested, but the investigation is ongoing.
The San Francisco Police Department said it does not have data on the number of break-ins connected with mail keys, as it is difficult to determine what kind of key was used unless an arrest was made.
The fix, post office officials said, is to replace the lock used to access your mail key with a keyless lock that has a unique code. This is the financial responsibility of the building owner, and involves hiring a locksmith and installing a code lock.
“People should be upgrading to a code system,” said Matthew Norfleet, a postal inspector with the United States Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service. “Postal would prefer that.”
“Ideally, there wouldn’t be any situations where a mail key allows access to a non-public part of an apartment building,” he added. “But it’s hard to speak to all the buildings in San Francisco, as they were built at different times.”
“If your mailroom opens into your garage, you should definitely change it.”
There has been an increase in the number of mail-carrier robberies in San Francisco in the past year, according to Jeff Fitch, another inspector with the agency. Although he could not provide an exact number of total robberies, he disclosed that in all but one of these incidents, keys were taken, typically one or two per robbery.
Last month, a relay box — a dark green box on the street used by mail carriers for mail storage during routes — was robbed in the Mission, and the letters kept inside were stolen, as reported by the San Francisco Standard.
Today there is only a single-digit number of missing keys, of the thousands used to deliver mail across the city. The agency would not disclose how many doors a key might open, as this would “educate those that are interested in committing crimes,” said Fitch.
For similar reasons, the agency does not inform people on mail routes that have been compromised by stolen keys.
“That would be an advantage to the person who has the key,” said Norfleet.
And, just because a key is returned, the route is not necessarily secure, according to Norfleet.
“Keys may have been surreptitiously copied in the past. It’s impossible to answer.”
If you switch to a keyless system, Fitch added, just remember to call your post office or tell your mail carrier to notify them of the change.
I am a retired mail carrier who worked in South Florida. The keys that carriers use are the same all over the country. San Francisco does not have it’s own special type of locks. Whoever wrote this article did not do their research and the article looked foolish to me and anyone else who works for USPS.
Hi Alan —
Nobody claimed San Francisco had any special locks. Rather, your former employer made it clear they feel such keys are both antiquated and a liability and urged property owners to change them.
Which article did you read?
Best,
JE